ratingshttp://www.maclife.com/taxonomy/term/5612/all
enAmazon Deal with Goodreads Derailed Potential Apple Partnershiphttp://www.maclife.com/article/news/amazon_deal_goodreads_derailed_potential_apple_partnership
<!--paging_filter--><p><img src="/files/u220903/goodreads_200px.png" alt="Goodreads" width="200" height="150" class="graphic-right" />While we're always guaranteed to hear about the deals Apple managed to nab, it's far more rare to hear about the ones that got away -- such as a potential partnership with Goodreads prior to Amazon snapping the company up.<br /><br /><a href="http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2013/04/18/amazons-Goodreads-purchase-scuttled-apple-partnership/" target="_blank"><em>The Wall Street Journal</em> is reporting</a> that Amazon.com's acquisition of book recommendation service Goodreads appears to have been about more than just expanding the Kindle's social networking presence -- it was also a strategic move to keep Apple from gaining a foothold there as well.<br /><br />According to sources familiar with the talks, Apple and Goodreads had been negotiating for nearly a year on how to integrate the latter's social tools into the former's iBookstore, similar to how the iPhone maker tied Rotten Tomatoes movie reviews into its iTunes Store.<br /><br />With talks ongoing, Apple executives contacted Goodreads last month to "move forward," only to be met with silence.<br /><br />That's because Amazon had already "expressed interest in buying the company," and sources claim any deal was contingent upon Goodreads cutting off talks with other companies while the deal was percolating.<br /><br />"Around that time, a different person at Apple not involved in the iBookstore talks reached out to Goodreads to ask whether it was interested in exploring other options; it’s unclear what those options included," the report concludes. "Goodreads declined."<br /><br /><em>Follow this article’s author, <a href="http://twitter.com/JRBTempe" target="_blank">J.R. Bookwalter on Twitter</a></em></p><p>&nbsp;</p>http://www.maclife.com/article/news/amazon_deal_goodreads_derailed_potential_apple_partnership#commentsNewsacquisitionsAmazonApple Inc.GoodreadsiBookstorepartnershipsratingssocial network integrationsocial networkingiPadiPhoneiPodFri, 19 Apr 2013 12:06:11 +0000J.R. Bookwalter16773 at http://www.maclife.comHow To Use iTunes Ratings to Create Smart Playlistshttp://www.maclife.com/article/howtos/how_use_itunes_ratings_create_smart_playlists
<!--paging_filter--><p><img src="/files/u220903/itunes_smart_playlist_header_620px.jpg" alt="iTunes Smart Playlist" width="620" height="300" /></p><p>For all of its faults, iTunes is a versatile media player, allowing you to organize music in interesting ways -- assuming you know how to do so in the first place. Among the built-in tools offered are Ratings and Smart Playlists, which can be used in tandem to display media in most any way you can imagine.<br /><br />If you thought those Ratings in iTunes were just for marking favorite (or least favorite) tunes in your collection, think again -- combined with the Smart Playlist feature, you can do all manner of interesting things beyond the realm of mere mortals.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><h3>Why Use Smart Playlists?</h3><p><img src="/files/u220903/itunes_why_use_smart_playlists_620px.jpg" alt="iTunes with Smart Playlist selected" width="620" height="300" /></p><p>Truthfully, we didn’t have much use for Smart Playlists prior to the debut of the first iPhone in June, 2007. Prior to that date, we had been rockin’ a black hard-drive equipped 60GB iPod (now referred to as the “iPod classic”) that deftly handled our 30GB-plus music library with ample room to spare. Unfortunately, the highest-capacity iPhone 2G at the time was a modest 8GB, which meant that more than three quarters of our iTunes library was going to get left behind -- ouch! What’s a music lover to do?<br /><br />Sure, one could just toss a bunch of favorite tracks into a regular ol’ playlist and sync that to your storage-deprived device, but what happens when you add new tracks in the future? Our solution was the combination of Ratings and Smart Playlists -- Ratings to “tag” tracks we want to include on such limited storage, and Smart Playlists to manage them accordingly. This technique allows for dynamically updated playlists as new music is added, without manual intervention for adding tracks in the future.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><h3>Ratings and Smart Playlists, Sittin’ In a Tree</h3><p><img src="/files/u220903/itunes-ratings-and-smart-playlists.jpg" alt="iTunes Ratings and Smart Playlists" width="620" height="300" /></p><p>If you don’t have the Rating column enabled in your main Music library, first head to View &gt; View Options and make sure it’s selected, then click OK. This step isn’t required, but once you start tagging tracks this way, it’s helpful to see them at a glance when browsing.</p><p><img src="/files/u220903/itunes-assign-rating.jpg" alt="iTunes assign Rating" width="620" height="300" /><br /><br />You can assign a Rating in a few different ways. For individual tracks, simply click on the desired star (from one to five) in the Rating column. Quickly apply Ratings to multiple tracks by selecting them, holding down the Control key, clicking anywhere on a given track and choosing Rating from the contextual menu -- that also includes None, should you want to remove a previous Rating and make it disappear from your Smart Playlist.<br /><br />The next step is the most time-consuming -- you actually have to decide how you’ll use these Ratings and then tag your music tracks accordingly. We’ll help you establish a couple of game plans in the next two sections, so let’s jump ahead and look at how Smart Playlists work.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><h3>How Smart Playlists Work</h3><p><img src="/files/u220903/itunes-how-smart-playlists-work.jpg" alt="iTunes Edit Smart Playlist" width="620" height="300" /></p><p>Apple has included a few Smart Playlists with new iTunes installs by default -- the playlists at the top of your Playlists category in the sidebar, denoted by a little spoked wheel. These include My Top Rated, Recently Played and Top 25 Most Played, and you can get a sense of how they operate by Control-Clicking on one and selecting “Edit Smart Playlist” from the contextual menu. (Music Videos also appear as a Smart Playlist, but to keep things simple we’re only focused on music.)<br /><br />Creating a Smart Playlist is simple: Choose File &gt; New Smart Playlist from the menu and tell iTunes the criteria by which you want to sort music according to various rules. If you’ve used Rules with the Mac OS X version of Mail.app to file or color-code your email, you already have a good idea how they work in iTunes.<br /><br />The most important aspect of Smart Playlists for our purposes is to make sure the “Live updating” box is checked (it is by default). This allows iTunes to keep your Smart Playlist current as it finds matching criteria, such as when new music is added. You’ll also have the ability to limit how many items appear in a Smart Playlist or even include them based on tracks that have been checked in your library.<br /><br />With all of that in mind, here are a couple of suggestions to get you started -- and stay tuned, because we want to invite readers to show us how they’re making use of Ratings and Smart Playlists, too.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><h3>Separate New Music You’ll Listen to Most Often</h3><p><img src="/files/u220903/itunes_separate_new_music_smart_playlist_620px.jpg" alt="Smart Playlist - Recent Mix" width="620" height="240" /></p><p>One of our favorites uses for Ratings + Smart Playlists is creating what we call a “Recent Mix” -- music that we’ve purchased recently and are more likely to listen to often, at least for a while. Since this will likely include entire albums -- until you decide which tracks on an album aren’t worth space on your device -- select those tracks, Control-Click and assign five stars to all of them at once.</p><p><img src="/files/u220903/itunes-new-smart-playlist-620px.jpg" alt="iTunes New Smart Playlist" width="620" height="300" /><br /><br />Start a new Smart Playlist and set it up according to the options shown above. For now, be sure to match all of the rules listed, which involve separating the tracks with five-star ratings (first rule) and then eliminating non-music entries by matching Media Kind to Music only (second rule). Be sure “Live updating” is checked so the Smart Playlist will continually add new tracks whenever you five-star them and click OK.<br /><br />By default, a new Smart Playlist with more than one rule will be called “untitled playlist” -- you can double-click on the name to change it to whatever you’d like, but since our list is used equally on desktop iTunes as well as with iOS devices, we added an underscore to the front of the name, which keeps it pinned at the top of our Playlists sidebar. <br /><br />Now, as you five-star new music in the future, all that’s left to do to maintain a “Recent Mix” playlist is to sort the tracks inside however you’d like -- although this is handier for desktop iTunes, since the iPod makes it easy to jump quickly to a particular artist or album at will.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><h3>Consolidate Favorites for Tiered iOS Syncing</h3><p><img src="/files/u220903/itunes_iphone-1_smart_playlist_620px.jpg" alt="Smart Playlist - iPhone #1" width="620" height="240" /></p><p>Until Apple blesses us with cloud syncing or the iPhone comes in a 64GB (or higher) capacity, many of us will have to be content with chopping up our music collection into smaller bites when it comes time to sync. That means making some “tough love” decisions about separating the wheat from the chaff (so to speak) -- some tracks will always be along for the ride in your pocket, while the rest remain at home.<br /><br />That’s where Ratings comes in handy again. Since we’ve already used five stars for our newer music example above, we’ll now separate catalog favorites into two convenient lists: Four stars for “iPhone #1” (music tracks we couldn’t live without on a desert island, maybe), and three stars for “iPhone #2” (other stuff you love that will only be included where space permits). As always, what you call these Smart Playlists is up to you.</p><p><img src="/files/u220903/itunes_iphone-2_smart_playlist_620px.jpg" alt="Smart Playlist - iPhone #2" width="620" height="240" /><br /><br />The idea here is to split a giant catalog of music into two or three Smart Playlists to be used according to available space. For example, “iPhone #1” contains catalog favorites we want to include on every iOS device, while “iPhone #2” features additional tracks we’ll only sync when space allows -- that older 60GB hard disk iPod that still works, or maybe a 64GB iPad or iPod touch.<br /><br />You can see how we created the two Smart Playlists above, which is essentially the same as the “Recent Mix” example but changing how many stars are used in the Rating.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><h3>Show Us Your Smart Playlists!</h3><p><img src="/files/u220903/itunes_show_us_your_smart_playlists_620px.jpg" alt="Show us your Smart Playlists" width="620" height="211" /></p><p>Now it’s your turn: Found a clever way to use Ratings and Smart Playlists together? Send us a screen capture of your settings and Smart Playlist and we’ll make a gallery from them to share with other MacLife.com readers. There may not be a prize in it for you, but you’ll get your name in (digital) print and the eternal gratitude of your fellow MacLifers. And that, as the saying goes, is priceless.<br /><br /><em>Follow this article’s author, <a href="http://www.twitter.com/JRBTempe" target="_blank">J.R. Bookwalter on Twitter</a></em></p><p><em><br /></em></p>http://www.maclife.com/article/howtos/how_use_itunes_ratings_create_smart_playlists#commentshow-tosiOSiPodiTunesMusicOrganizationplaylistsratingsRulesSmart Playliststips and tricksiPhoneMacHow-TosWed, 25 May 2011 23:30:57 +0000J.R. Bookwalter11103 at http://www.maclife.comGoodGuide Updates iPhone App With Barcode Scannerhttp://www.maclife.com/article/news/goodguide_updates_iphone_app_barcode_scanner
<!--paging_filter--><p><img src="/files/u12635/goodguide_large.jpg" width="380" height="225" /></p><p><a href="http://www.goodguide.com/" target="_blank">GoodGuide</a>, a website that reviews companies based on their impact on health, the environment and society, has had an iPhone application for a while that allowed you to search through the more than 65,000 products they have in their database. Recently, however, they updated the application to include a barcode scanner, making it even easier to search for the "good" in any product.</p><p>The application, which is free on the App Store [<a href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/goodguide/id294447660?mt=8" target="_blank">iTunes link</a>], also allows you to see top rated products, and even create your own favorites list based on the product reviews.</p><p>Check out the video below (or on <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bb2EaIWf4mA" target="_blank">YouTube</a>) to see a demonstration of how the new GoodGuide app for iPhone works.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p><object width="380" height="229" data="http://www.youtube.com/v/Bb2EaIWf4mA?fs=1&amp;hl=en_US&amp;rel=0" type="application/x-shockwave-flash"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true" /><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always" /><param name="src" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/Bb2EaIWf4mA?fs=1&amp;hl=en_US&amp;rel=0" /><param name="allowfullscreen" value="true" /></object></p> <p>via <a href="http://www.9to5mac.com/2010/08/iPhone-barcode-scanner-shows-you-how-horrible-everything-is/" target="_blank">9to5 Mac</a></p><p><em>Follow this article's author, <a href="http://twitter.com/coryb" target="_blank">Cory Bohon on Twitter</a></em>.</p>http://www.maclife.com/article/news/goodguide_updates_iphone_app_barcode_scanner#commentsNewsApp StoreAppsbar codegood guideiphoneiPhone appsProductsrankingsratingsreviewsscannershoppingWed, 25 Aug 2010 19:37:47 +0000Cory Bohon8048 at http://www.maclife.comSurvey Shows iPad Owners Are Happy With the Devicehttp://www.maclife.com/article/news/survey_shows_ipad_owners_are_happy_device
<!--paging_filter--><p><img src="/files/u12635/Technologizer_iPad_survey_large.jpg" width="380" height="323" /></p><p>The iPad has had <a href="http://www.maclife.com/article/news/apple_could_make_15_billion_quarter_ipad_sales_top_3_million" target="_self">phenomenal sales</a> according to Apple's recently released sales figures, and it's still hard to find an iPad to purchase in some locations. <a href="http://technologizer.com/2010/06/30/ipad-survey/" target="_blank">Technologizer</a> has compiled a list of results from its recent survey in which more than 6,000 iPad owners were polled about how they liked the device. The survey covers some interesting areas, but the amount of people happy with the device is truly amazing.</p><p>In the survey, 98% of the people polled said they were satisfied with their iPad purchase, with 96% believing that it was a good value.</p><p>According to the survey, of the 6,000 polled, 62% had the Wi-Fi-only model, while 33% of those have had the iPad since <a href="http://www.maclife.com/article/news/ipad_launch_day_nets_apple_more_300000_units" target="_self">launch day</a> on April 3rd. The 82% of iPad owners are using the device along side of a Mac and 10% are using it with Mac and Windows, while only 8% on Windows alone.</p><p>Only one feature of the iPad had people unhappy about the device: the App Store. In addition, responders wished the iPad had printing capabilities, a built-in <a href="http://www.maclife.com/article/feature/seven_hidden_features_ipad_camera_connection_kit" target="_self">memory card</a> slot, and a front-facing camera.</p><p>You can read all 3 pages of juicy details on the <a href="http://technologizer.com/2010/06/30/ipad-survey/" target="_blank">Technologizer website</a>.</p><p><em><br /><br />Follow this article's author, <a href="http://twitter.com/coryb" target="_blank">Cory Bohon on Twitter</a>.<br /><br /></em></p>http://www.maclife.com/article/news/survey_shows_ipad_owners_are_happy_device#commentsNewsApple Inc.iPad 3GratingsReviewSurveyTechnologizeriPadThu, 01 Jul 2010 18:19:08 +0000Cory Bohon7457 at http://www.maclife.com